“Over the past few months, as I’ve been planning to run for re-election, I have also been giving a great deal of thought to running for governor in 2016,” Biden, the vice president’s eldest son, said in an email to supporters and in a statement on his website. “What started as a thought – a very persistent thought – has now become a course of action that I wish to pursue.”

Biden, who was hospitalized at a Texas cancer center last year, said he decided it would not be right to seek another term as attorney general in 2014 “knowing that my focus would be divided between doing my job as attorney general while at the same time running as a candidate for governor.”